The Double Triple is gone. The Bonanza is on the horizon.Beginning Saturday at Laurel Park, Maryland tracks will introduce a new exotic bet that will be offered on weekend cards to fans throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.The Bonanza will be a regional pick six affair that features two races each from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, usually overnight events.Races will be the fourth and fifth on each track's card with post times set so that Bonanza races are run eight minutes apart."We're all excited about creating a unique wagering opportunity for fans throughout the Mid-Atlantic area as a first step in regional cooperation," said Joe De Francis, president of the Maryland Jockey Club.

They might be a little snooty, but it would be hard to find a family more welcome in these parts than the Crawleys of “Downton Abbey” - at least in Owings Mills, home of Maryland Public Television. Just as “American Idol” in its heyday used to attract tens of thousands of new viewers to Fox affiliates like WBFF in Baltimore, so has “Downton Abbey” come to be a ratings, promotional and fundraising bonanza for PBS affiliates like MPT. “The total audience for 'Downton Abbey' is nearly twice what our other leading programs deliver on an episode-by-episode basis,” says Steven Schupak, chief content officer.

Two years ago, with Kuwait in shambles and under the choking clouds of Iraqi-set oil-well fires, it was widely felt that the grateful Kuwaitis would provide huge contracts to U.S. firms for the enormous job of rebuilding their country. And because of special efforts by Gov. William Donald Schaefer, Marylanders were told their state's companies would be at the head of the line.But there was no line, no business whatsoever for Maryland and no Kuwait bonanza.And on Friday, having all but abandoned efforts to help rebuild Kuwait, Maryland agreed to a Baltimore Circuit Court order to release the secret document drawn up by the state and the Kuwaiti government laying out terms of their business relationship.

On Jan. 9, 2003, Rick Conrad, a career firefighter in Hagerstown, proposed a plan to his union's charitable foundation. The union, founded in 1966, had a long history of supporting local charities. But Conrad, who lives in Clear Spring, had something much larger in mind. He envisioned a two-day event, with live music, free food and giveaways of cars, motorcycles and hundreds of thousands of dollars. "They liked it," Conrad recalled, adding, "They put it in front of our membership for a vote, and they passed it unanimously.

By Peter B. Flint and Peter B. Flint,New York Times News Service | July 2, 1991

Michael Landon, who won fame as Little Joe Cartwright in the classic television series "Bonanza" and enhanced his celebrity as a creator, writer and director of other television hits, died yesterday at his ranch in Malibu, Calif. He was 54.His death was announced by a spokeswoman for his lawyer, 12 weeks after Mr. Landon disclosed he had inoperable cancer of the liver and pancreas. "I am going to fight it," the boyishly handsome entertainer told reporters on April 5, adding, "Live every minute, guys."

Leading economic indicators suggest a recovery beneficial to incumbents in time for the '94 midterm election.Q. How do you reduce the number of young black males in Baltimore in trouble with the law? A. Better schools, more jobs, less dope.If teachers are striking, autumn cannot be far behind.The nutty hostility at the Republican National Convention was a bonanza for Democratic fund-raising. It is a little-known fact of political zoology that not all fat cats are male.

By Christy Kruhm and Christy Kruhm,SPECIAL TO THE SUN | October 20, 2000

SO MAYBE IT wasn't George W. Bush and Al Gore behind the lecterns at South Carroll High School yesterday, but they certainly would have been impressed with the students portraying the presidential candidates in a hot and furious debate about the political issues. Representing Bush, Adam Altman, and Matt Kinsler, portraying Gore, fired answers back and forth in response to questions ranging from efforts to reduce gun-related deaths to the future of the Social Security system. The political contest was part of a mock debate by students in Cindy Snyder's political science class.

Jay's Journal of Anomalies, by Ricky Jay. Quantuck Lane 202 pages. $25. Ricky Jay, in case you had never noticed, is a distinguished film actor (five David Mamet films, among others), scholar of the duplicitously entertaining (ex-curator of the Mulholland Library of Conjuring and the Allied Arts), sleight-of-hand artist (serious critics designate him "the world's greatest") and author / editor of Jay's Journal of Anomalies, which he wrote and published quarterly beginning in the spring of 1994.

I DECIDED TO beat the Holy Week rush by weaving through a sidewalk full of schoolchildren and taking a seat in Rick Citrano's well-lighted Highlandtown barbershop. You'd never call this place a "salon" or a "cuttery." It's pretty much your father's barbershop. Rick gives a no-nonsense haircut for $9. I arrived just as Rick was brushing the trimmings from an elderly man with orange-and-gray hair and preparing to clean up a young man who wanted his brown hair to be as trim as his brown beard.

WASHINGTON -- Raspberries and blueberries are the bonanza fruit of the day, flying out of supermarkets in teeny boxes at super prices. They're everything the modern consumer demands: candy-like, ultra-convenient, famously healthful and available year round, thanks largely to Southern Hemisphere farmers. The market is so hot that both domestic production and imports are growing and - in defiance of usual market economics - supply, demand and price are all at record highs. The berry bonanza is so hot that there's a two-year wait for plants from commercial nurseries.

As the morning of our third-week pickup dawned, I pulled the Post-it notes off our refrigerator: We had done it. We'd successfully eaten everything from Week 2, except half a head of broccoli. On to Week 3! This week's share included turnips, beets, radishes, onions, carrots, lettuce, raspberries - and more broccoli. A huge, giant, enormous head of broccoli. Clearly, I needed a broccoli dish to take advantage of this bounty. I settled down with a stack of cookbooks and the pint of fresh raspberries, snacking as I rejected recipe after recipe.

Baltimore Sun reporters Jeff Barker and Don Markus and editor Matt Bracken weigh in on the three biggest topics of the past week in Maryland sports. Maryland unveiled renderings of its new FieldTurf surface at Byrd Stadium that will be traditional green - not red, black or pewter. After last season's debut of those wild-looking football uniforms, did the university intentionally decide to go conservative with the field? Jeff Barker: I think Maryland accomplished what it wanted.

By David Zurawik and David Zurawik,david.zurawik@baltsun.com | September 11, 2009

While tens of thousands of fans have been counting the days until the Baltimore Ravens' season opener Sunday, it's hard to imagine anyone happier to see the games begin than Jay Newman, general manager of WJZ -TV. Newman's CBS-owned station will carry 13 of the Ravens' 16 games this season, thanks to a network contract with the American Football Conference. For Channel 13 that means monster ratings - and a heavy flow of advertising revenue amid the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

Have we all lost the ability to balance our checkbooks? In just two years, the amount of overdraft fees collected by the largest banks has increased by 70 percent, according to a recent study by the Center for Responsible Lending. It's a big change from the past. There was a time when debit cards would be turned down if you did not have enough money in your account to cover a transaction. But today's debit cards never say, "No" and are a great deal for the bank. Debit-card transactions are the leading cause of overdrafts, according to the center.

The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival takes place Thursday-May 20 with more than 40 performances by various musicians, including John Starling and Carolina Star, the Seldom Scene, the Biscuit Burners and the Steep Canyon Rangers. A number of food and craft vendors and activities will be onsite for the whole family. Also offered will be instrument workshops and group jam sessions led by a number of the performers. The festival will be held at Granite Hill Camping Resort, 3340 Fairfield Road in Gettysburg.

WASHINGTON -- Raspberries and blueberries are the bonanza fruit of the day, flying out of supermarkets in teeny boxes at super prices. They're everything the modern consumer demands: candy-like, ultra-convenient, famously healthful and available year round, thanks largely to Southern Hemisphere farmers. The market is so hot that both domestic production and imports are growing and - in defiance of usual market economics - supply, demand and price are all at record highs. The berry bonanza is so hot that there's a two-year wait for plants from commercial nurseries.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Baseball's annual winter meetings open tomorrow at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel, but little has changed since the sport's player personnel executives gathered in Southern California for the general managers' meetings a month ago.Everything's still iffy because of Griffey.The Seattle Mariners still are trying to trade superstar outfielder Ken Griffey, which figures to make him the hottest topic of conversation during the five-day trading convention. He's just one player, and 30 teams will be represented at the meetings.

The gift of $100 million to Glassboro State College to create a college of engineering in southern New Jersey is a model of public-private partnership for economic development and of private fund solicitation by state institutions. It is also a bonanza for one small school of limited fame.Henry M. Rowan, chairman-founder of Inductotherm, Inc., a high-tech manufacturer of Rancocas, N.J., and his wife Betty, have pledged to give $100 million over 10 years. In return, the school in the town of Glassboro, 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia and beyond its suburbs, has been renamed Rowan College of New Jersey.

THERE IS AN UPSIDE TO the downpours that flooded the Middle Atlantic states last month: River rafting conditions are better than usual for this time of year. After effectively shutting down recreational rafting, canoeing and kayaking in popular spots such as those along the Delaware River in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, the heavy rains have ensured an ample water supply for much of the summer season -- and, in some cases, have enhanced rafting conditions. THERE IS ROOM AT THE INN: INNS AND B&BS FOR WHEELERS AND SLOW WALKERS Demos Medical Publishing / $21.95 Inns and bed-and-breakfasts are known for their coziness and intimacy, but for physically disabled travelers, charm can only go so far. Candy B. Harrington, founder of the accessible travel magazine Emerging Horizons, knows this all too well.

OCEAN CITY -- Forty years ago, the owner of nearly 340 acres of woods, marsh and fields just across Assawoman Bay from this bustling beach resort decreed that the land should be spared from development until the last farmer working the corn and soybean fields had died. That time has come. The waterfront property that seems a little like Brigadoon and overlooks the Route 90 bridge is to be auctioned Saturday on behalf of three beneficiaries, all local churches. Developers are practically swooning.